Welcome to the "Cyprus Pottery - Ceramic Association" website. Trough this website you can find information about the work, biography and contact details for each of the association's members. You can also find information and photographs about upcoming or past ceramics exhibitions, in Cyprus and abroad, organized by either the association or individual ceramists.

About Cypriot Ceramists - Potters

Prior to 1974 the main ceramic workshops were based in Kyrenia and surrounding areas, as well as in Famagusta and its district.

The workshops in the Kyrenia area produced mainly glazed ware for every day use, as well as high quality and crafted gifts. The work was done in small units, usually mainly by the families themselves. They used electric furnaces, electric turntables and prepared the clay themselves by obtaining it from the foothills of the Pendadaktylos mountain range. Most of the ceramic items they created, they decorated by hand, glazed and fired at low temperatures (920-980 degrees Celsius). They furthermore made various types of terracotta flowerpots and jugs.

In the Famagusta area there were many workshops in the town as well as in the villages. They produced large pots for every day use (mainly terracotta pots), such as the koukkoumares (jugs), flowerpots, cooking-pots and some decorative vessels. They made the clay themselves and the earth was taken from the Mesaoria plain. They had large furnaces and they used wood to fire at 900-940 degrees Celsius. There were similar workshops also in Nicosia, but fewer in number.

After the Turkish invasion of July 1974, all these potters who consequently became refugees, moved to the south of the island, where some of them reestablished themselves and set up new workshops, whereas others abandoned the trade. Many young people went abroad to study ceramic art and on returning to Cyprus, they opened their own workshops. They brought fresh new ideas and new techniques with them, developing a new outlook on ceramic art from a pure artistic point of view.

With tourism gaining significance on the island, the number of workshops increased and a great percentage of pottery ware was purchased by tourists. Some workshops exported and export in small quantities mainly to Europe. Today there are approximately 40 ceramic workshops, most of them being small units employing one to two people. There are very few large workshops employing more than two people.

During the week of 15-22 March 2019, an exhibition of artistic ceramics took place at the “Kerameiki
Techni” exhibition center at 62, Petraki Kyprianou Street, Larnaca. The exhibition took place within the
framework of the European program CERARE and the participants were 10 Cypriot ceramists from
Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca, with works already posted on the CERARE platform.
The opening of the exhibition that took place on Friday, March 15, was attended by the participating
ceramists and many friends of pottery art. There was an update on the CERARE program and a
presentation of how the ceramists use the platforms, how they can access the system, upload their
works and edit their entries see the rest of the platform users. Everyone was impressed- especially the
young people - with the level of work and the way the platform works. The interest shown was intense
and several downloaded the CERARE application on their mobile phone, and others used the tablets
available by the organizers to see how the app works. The general comments were very positive.
Primarily they liked the originality of the projection and story telling, which they considered very
important to perceive the creator's thinking about each and every project.

The exhibition was open to the public daily from 10.00 to 18.00 and has been attended by various
friends of ceramics and students of fine arts schools based in Larnaca and Nicosia. During the exhibition
there were available questionnaires for evaluation of the program which were completed by several
visitors. A general suggestion was that in the language options on the platform and in the CERARE
application, it would be good to add the Greek language.